NOT ALL FAKE INDIANS are CHEROKEE, CHUMASH in CA Has Some

It's not just Iron Eyes Cody, Elizabeth Warren and Andrea Smith that have been exposed as fake Indians, the last two Cherokee...add Mati Waiya to that motley crew.  The Los Angeles Times digs deep into a fake Chumash, who's making big money off the tribe's good name.

  Waiya 2010         (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

For more than a quarter of a century, Waiya has served as one of the most prominent voices for the Chumash, invoking his ancestors’ ties to the land along the Santa Clara River. His nonprofit Wishtoyo Foundation, which runs an education center in Malibu, has raised more than $12 million since 2015, IRS records show.
The foundation also has waged legal battles to protect historically Chumash areas and waterways from pollution and major construction projects.

But leaders of the local Chumash band and academic experts on the tribe’s history and genealogy challenge Waiya’s claims to Chumash roots. Several also have asked whether it is appropriate for him and his family to make money through the foundation and allege he performs ceremonies that mislead the public about Chumash culture and usurps the role of the tribal leadership in Ventura County.  OP:  Fakes In, but others OUT?

A Times review of census, birth, marriage, death and Roman Catholic Church records dating to the 18th century shows that Waiya’s forebears came from Mexico, where ethnohistorians said there were no Chumash.  OP:  Our Hunter family research, done through census, birth, marriage via Roman Catholic Church records proved we WERE Pechanga, wish the Times had dug into that....

The full story is linked above.... please read..